I'm Scott Malkinson

16- Catwalk

Sure enough, the next day when the lunch bell rings, Scott felt his phone buzzing in his pocket with a text from Clyde.

Clyde: Hey Scott, where should I meet you?
Clyde: You do still want to meet up, right?

Scott smiled at his phone. Clyde seemed really excited to spend time with him, nobody had ever cared this much about Scott. Nobody had ever made him feel so special.

Scott: Meet me in theater hall.

Clyde: Yes Sir! :D

When Scott got to the hall between the auditorium and music classrooms, Clyde was already there waiting for him. "Hi Scott," he greeted with a smile that made him feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

"Hey," Scott replied, smiling back. He must've imagined it, but he could swear Clyde's cheeks got a little pink. That couldn't be true though; nobody blushes when they see Scott Malkinson. Clyde would probably call that statement science. "This way," he whispered, slinking through the hall, ducking under the windows of the music classrooms. Clyde followed in suit. At the end of the hall was the side door to the auditorium that led onstage.

"Isn't this a little out in the open?" Clyde asked, staring at the stage. "I thought we weren't supposed to be in here."

"We're not eating on the stage," Scott replied with a sly smile. The place they were going, they really weren't supposed to be in. "Trust me, we'll be way more well hidden."

Scott climbed the stairs at the side of the stage that led up to the loft where the prop storage area was. At one end of the loft there was a door with a lock on it. Scott twisted in the combination (it was 0000, seriously, the easiest combo ever) the lock sprung open. Behind the door was a ladder that led to the catwalk.

"Holy shit, how did you even get access to this?" asked Clyde.

Scott shrugged and said, "tech club privileges," as if it was no big deal. In reality he'd just decided he was going to try every possible combination on the lock from 0000 to 9999 to keep himself busy, and had gotten lucky on the first one. Truthfully that had been a bit disappointing at the time, it would've felt much more rewarding if it had actually been a challenge.

They climbed the ladder and crawled out onto the catwalk. "Look at that view," Scott said, gesturing out at the stage below them. The ceiling of the auditorium dipped down, covering the back wall of the walk, but the front was open with a view of the stage. Anyone who walked in the auditorium from the back would have no chance of seeing them. If they were standing on the stage they'd be able to if they really looked, but Scott doubted they ever would.

"Scott Malkinson," Clyde forced a gasp as he spoke. "Did you take me to a hookup spot?"

"What??? No! I just eat my lunch here sometimes. I've never even thought about hooking up here!!" Scott frantically defended himself.

Clyde giggled as he did so. "I didn't think you were thinking that, but other people have definitely had that idea. Just look at this," Clyde said, pointing at some graffiti on the wall. "Kevin and Shelley did it right here, and then there's a little arrow pointing down to the exact spot. Wait, isn't that Stan's sister? Sick dude. I wonder which Kevin it was, there are like 10 at this school."

Scott burried his face in his hands. "Oh my god, I totally didn't need to know that," he giggled.

They ate their lunch talking and laughing the whole time. Scott was surprised to find that the conversation never dulled, Clyde never got tired of him. When lunch period was about to end Clyde pulled a silver sharpie out of his backpack and handed it to Scott. "Here sign your name on the wall," he told him. Normally, Scott would never even think of defacing school property, but the catwalk was so rarely used by staff and already had so much graffiti that he decided to make an exception and wrote out "Scott" on the wall. Clyde retrieved his sharpie from Scott's hands and wrote his own name, right under Scott's then drew a little heart around them.

"Dude, that's so gay," Scott giggled. "People are gonna think we hooked up here."

"Well I'm wearing socks right now, so even if we did I'm not gay. Are you wearing socks Scott?" Clyde asked, laughing.

"Seriously, what do socks have to do with anything?"

"Socks are magic gay shields, duh."

"Last time you said it was science, now it's magic?"

"Magic can be science."

"It's quite literally the opposite of science."

They argued like this the whole way down back onto the stage. No sooner than their feet hit the ground, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang. Clyde pulled Scott into a tight bear hug. "Let's do this again sometime, okay?" he said.

"Okay," Scott agreed, finding that his heart was racing and he was unable to stop smiling.

"Hold on," Clyde said, turning back around. "I almost forgot something."